Kia ora e te whānau,

As we begin the week, we are pleased to share some very special news with you.

On Friday, Albany Junior High School was notified that we have been shortlisted in the Top 10 nationally for the New Zealand Education Excellence Awards under the category ‘Quality Teaching and Instruction’.

We would like to take this opportunity to share what this recognition represents for our school, and more importantly, what it means for our adolescent students’ learning.

Our vision for learning at AJHS

At Albany Junior High School, our vision is to ensure that every ākonga (student) is equipped to access, engage in, and succeed across all areas of the curriculum, and to grow as confident, capable learners prepared for their future pathways.

Our Strategy – What we have focused on

Over the past four years, post covid, we have taken a very deliberate, evidence-informed approach to strengthening teaching and learning across the school.

We identified that many students were arriving at AJHS in Year 7 needing additional support with literacy, which was impacting their ability to access the curriculum to learn across all subjects. In response, we developed a coherent, school-wide strategy, focused on:

  • Structured Literacy – explicitly teaching reading, spelling, and writing skills

  • Explicit Teaching – clear, step-by-step teaching so students know exactly what to do and how to succeed

  • Building Teacher Capability – ensuring all teachers are confident, consistent, and skilled in how they teach

Importantly, this has not been a single programme. It has been a phased, whole-school approach, led through deliberate leadership and aligned systems, to ensure every classroom supports student learning in a consistent and effective way.

Strategic leadership and implementation

This work has been carefully led and built over time to ensure it is sustainable and embedded:

  • 2024: Establishment of Literacy Leaders to build internal expertise

  • 2025: Formation of a Literacy Taskforce to design and coordinate a school-wide approach

  • 2026: Appointment of an Explicit Teaching Lead to embed and scale effective practice across all classrooms

This leadership structure ensures that improvement is not dependent on individuals, but is supported, monitored, and embedded across the school through a vision, strategy, leadership and teaching.

Investing in the right support

To make this work successful, we have made carefully considered decisions about resourcing and staffing, including:

  • Establishing Literacy Leaders and a school-wide Literacy Taskforce

  • Appointing an Explicit Teaching Lead to support teachers in classrooms

  • Providing ongoing professional learning for all staff, including coaching, modelling, and feedback

  • Aligning teacher professional growth to explicit teaching practice

  • Training teacher aides and relief teachers to better support students

  • Implementing structured literacy tools such as The Code and robust assessment systems to track progress

These investments ensure that improvement is not short-term, but sustained, consistent, and embedded across the school.

What we are seeing – Our Achievement

We are already seeing strong, measurable improvements for our students:

  • Significant progress in spelling and writing, particularly for students who needed additional support

  • Fewer students in lower achievement levels, and more students moving into expected and above expectation levels

  • Increased confidence, engagement, and willingness to take on challenge

At the same time, we have strengthened our teaching workforce, with:

  • greater consistency in teaching practice across all classrooms

  • improved teacher confidence and capability

  • stronger support systems and shared approaches across the school

What this means for our students

This recognition reflects that your child is learning in a school that is:

  • focused on evidence-informed teaching practices

  • committed to equity and ensuring every learner can succeed

  • investing in high-quality teaching and support systems

  • continually reviewing and improving how we teach

While we are proud of this recognition, the work is ongoing.

Our current focus is on:

  • extending these practices into Years 9–10

  • strengthening alignment across all learning areas

  • continuing to build a consistent, high-quality learning experience for every student

A collective achievement

This recognition belongs to our entire community, our kaiako/teachers’, our ākonga/students’ and you, our whānau. It reflects our coherent, school-wide approach, where The AJHS Way: integrity, respect, courage, and culture underpins achievement. We know that who our learners are and how they show up each day drives their habits of success.

No matter the outcome of the final awards, this recognition affirms that we are making a meaningful difference together.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Cushla Shepherd,

Principal/Tumuaki

Albany Junior High School